Sauter's tires confiscated after Busch race

LOUDON, N.H. -- The tires from Johnny Sauter's NASCAR Busch Series car were confiscated by NASCAR after a mysterious mid-race performance spike in Saturday's New England 200 at New Hampshire International Speedway.

	Johnny Sauter

The tires from Sauter's No. 43 Channellock/Curb Chevrolet will be taken to North Carolina for chemical analysis, NASCAR spokesman Mike Zizzo said.

Sauter started the race 27th and was not a factor through its early stages.

After a pit stop, Sauter drove to the front of the field, turning lap times as fast or faster than the race's only leader through its first 141 laps, Winston Cup regular Kevin Harvick.

Sauter took the lead from Harvick, who is his teammate on the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR Busch Series team that leads the division's owner standings, but then had to pit and lost a lap when the race's fourth caution flew.

Two laps after the ensuing restart, Harvick let Sauter back on the lead lap when another caution was displayed, but Sauter's car's engine only lasted until lap 178, and he finished 25th.

However, his Curb-Agajanian Motorsports car's performance surge raised questions from NASCAR officials.

"Sauter's car was selected as an additional random teardown car due to his lap times versus the lap times of the leaders," Zizzo said. "The car was torn down, including a full analysis of its electrical system, and everything passed."

The car's tires, however, were kept by NASCAR and will be taken to the Charlotte area for analysis next week.

After the event, Sauter dropped one position in the unofficial driver point standings, to ninth.